So you want a high risk job?

[kenrobg30]

There are alot of Sailors who do not even know HM's serve on the front lines with our Bros. E club on 32nd street- myself and 3 Marines(in Utes) were hanging the night before a 2 week excersise. 3 Sailors came up to me after eyeballing me for about a half an hour. They were shocked I was a Sailor and asked me what I was doing with "those Jarheads". I told them our role with the USMC. They were amazed and bought us a round!

On the way home from Korea, in Feb. 1952, we laid over in Honalulufor two days. the only uniforms we had were our Greens. We had a Corpsman buddy with us, when we hit the beach. He was wearing Greens, with his Navy Stripes, and hardware. We went into a bar, and the bartender refused to serve us because the DOC, wasn't white. He was a full blooded Native American. There were two rented car-loads of us, so we quietly wrecked the joint, and left. We didn't bother to open the door on our way out. the marines, in the other car dropped it off, two blocks down the street. I haven't said welcome to you Doc. --- There, now I've said it ! Sempre Fi !! Ken

[USNAviator]

Doc

You and several other Marines have been a great help to me while I was researching the class on the Corps I will be teaching at VMI

I plan on devoting at least 50% of the 16 weeks of class time to instructing those Kaydets about the Corps and it's presence in both Korea and Viet Nam. Sadly an era glossed over in most history courses

Your stories about Docs and Recon are just what might whet their appetite to do further research on their own. To tell them the truth about the Tet Offensive and how the American news industry slanted it to meet its own bias.

Personally I don't think I rate or pack the gear to say "welcome home" to a Viet Nam Vet so I'll just say, thank you Marines and Docs

[AAV Crewchief]

I do not think these figures are at all unique to Recon. In fact I would bet that if you looked at the line companies in 1/9 or 2/5 you would see similar. I have just never seen those figures.

But in 1967 the 3rdReconBn had an authorized strength of 23 Corpsman. Now at least 5-8 of these Corpsman would be in H&S (BAS) and would not normally be going out on patrols.

Which leaves you 3-4 Corpsman to a line company or say about 14- 16 Docs that are going out on patrols regularly.

In 1967 the Docs in 3Recon had 46 WIA/KIA.

5 killed and 41 wounded.

Over a 250% KIA/WIA rate for those going out beyond the wire on a regular basis ???

No math major but that is the way the numbers look to me.

Corpsmen save the lives of many Marines and that is a damn fact. Corpsmen are not trained as fighters, but lifesavers. Considering their training (to save lives) would it not be pretty obvious that 1) a lack of specialized training as a warfighter and 2) a desire to save the lives of the Marines they are charged to save and protect led them to put themselves in situations( running out into the open to a Marine that is hollering for aid) not conducive to staying alive against an enemy the Vietnam Vets had to face back in the 60s and 70s?

[USMCM38A1]

Corpsmen are deffinatley the unsung heros most they carry no weapon and run to the battle closest thing to a Marine that I can think of lol

[Lynn2]

"Corpsmen are not trained as fighters, but lifesavers."

Well that truly depends on the type of Corpsman.

When I got to Recon at Camp Reasoner two of the most combat trained guys in the company were my two Doc mentors.

They had been through just about ever recon related school there was at the time.

More so than many of the Marines I served with.

In fact many times when we had in-house combat training of some sort these two were as likely to be doing the demo as anyone.

Today I would bet that the average SARC Corpsman is as well combat prepared as just about any one in the FMF

In my case?

I had two friggin weeks of real but very easy combat training (1/2 of FMSS) before I was on a Team in combat.

Talk about OJT and being thrown to the wolves.

[doc h fmf]

To All My Brothers And Sisters Who Served In Korea And Vietnam Godbless You All Welcome Home And Thank You For A Job Well Done!!!

Semper Fi

Stwephen Doc Hansen Hm3 Fmf

[FistFu68]

Ask Capt.R.E.Hoover formally of Hoovers Hunters of 3rd Recon what He thought of the H2H Combat We encountered in the Bunkers of Dodge City against the NVA

[GT6238]

Corpsmen are deffinatley the unsung heros most they carry no weapon and run to the battle closest thing to a Marine that I can think of lol

I believe Docs can and often do carry and use weapons in combat...

[Mongoose]

Ask Capt.R.E.Hoover formally of Hoovers Hunters of 3rd Recon what He thought of the H2H Combat We encountered in the Bunkers of Dodge City against the NVA

Some of the senior ncos and officers compared the fierce fighting for the bunkers at Meade River with Iwo Jima.

[Lynn2]

I believe Docs can and often do carry and use weapons in combat...

I can assure you they do.

I have said this before but on almost all patrols I went on I was the most heavily armed guy on the Team. Being the only one to carry a back-up.

I know of Docs that were also the M-79 guy for the Team for days at a time.

And we have seen articles about docs graduating from USMC Sniper school and being a member of those Teams.

It really depends on the type of unit you are with.

Doc